Instead of eye candy, sock pattern candy!

My original intention was to share a lovely picture of a Boston landmark with you today, part of Eye Candy Friday. I even uploaded the aforementioned picture to my server! But yesterday evening I received my copy of Favorite Socks, 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave, and as an avid sock knitter, I have to share my excitement with you!

Before you ask, “Timeless designs from Interweave? Don’t I already have all of these patterns?” allow me to answer – probably some, but definitely not all.

First, I counted six pairs which are brand spankin’ new for this book! Second, several pairs are reprinted from late 90s and early 00s (he) when I, for one, was not a knitter. Third, sure, I have the patterns for the Retro Rib Socks, Padded Footlets, Cable Rib Socks, Go With the Flow Socks, and Waving Lace Socks (the ones on the cover) somewhere, but I need a personal assistant if I have any hope of collecting them all in one spot in less than 5 days.

On the technical front, the book contains Priscilla Gibson-Roberts’ Dream Socks article, one of the best guides for knitting socks with short-row heels and toes. There’s also a re-print of Wayne Pfeffer’s Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks from the summer 2000 issue of Spin-Off, which interests me (and my grandmother, who refuses to throw away anything I’ve knit for her, no matter how many holes) greatly. There are several Nancy Bush patterns, three of which feature stranded colorwork as only Nancy does it :). Last, there’s a cute pair of footlets with seamless intarsia in the round! Sign. me. up!

Here are some more socks which grabbed my attention (click on pictures for bigger):

A pair of socks in a merino/linen blend, and a pair in Cascade Fixation.

A gorgeous pair by Nancy Bush, using the eye of partridge heel just like my Happy Green socks, and a pair which is similar to the green socks themselves!

A shadow knitting pair! Oooo, boy! My foray into shadow knitting has been brief, but memorable. Just the other day I was eyeing my copy of Vivian Hoxbro’s Shadow Knitting longingly… I’m all over these!

These three pairs have my grandma’s name written all over them, especially that green pair.

I’m making the Anniversary Socks (another N. Bush pattern) for my DH since I will be missing our anniversary this year. I even managed to find some of the (discontinued) Richesse et Soie called for in the pattern. Hopefully these beautiful socks will get me out of the doghouse!

I’ve been getting Interweave Knits since 1998 and still found the book crucial. Even though I have a good portion of the patterns, it is very helpful to have them in one place, e.g. I’d forgotten about the lovely Austrian Socks (the white ones in the bottom row of pictures) and I have yarn which will be perfect for them.

I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and they still are showing it as not yet published. I finally gave up and canceled my order with them and ordered it from Knit Picks. I’m still waiting for it but it should arrive very soon.

Yes, lovely book, I got it two weeks ago! I did notice several patterns that were in various issues of IK (Embossed Leaves is my favorite), but also enough new ones to make it worth the purchase. I can’t wait for you to make some so that I can see how they come out. It’s always fun to see how the patterns knit up in different yarn and colors on the blogs, and you always have great pictures with close-up details.

I actually got this book about a month ago. I visited an LYS and they had 1 or 2 copies – it was something I hadn’t seen before and I was very impressed with it. As I was buying it I mentioned that I hadn’t seen it before, and the guy at the register said they had JUST gotten it in – apparently since they are an Interweave “Preferred Vendor” or some such, they get a couple of copies long before any of the major bookstores carry it. I wonder how many of these “Preferred Vendors” there are?

I got my copy a few days ago, and I’ve been matching sock yarns to patterns ever since. I really like the anniversary socks Nancy Bush designed for the Piecework anniversary issue. I need to pick some special yarn for those.

Most of the new patterns were by Ann Budd. I was surprised that she could knit to 9 spi on size 2 needles with a Trekking or Lorna’s Laces weight sock yarn. I’m going to have to go down to a 0 to achieve that gauge.

Ah, just when I’d already (over)spent my current book budget, blogland is conspiring to make me cave and buy this book. Right. Now. Those pics all look simply loverly. And the Nancy Bush books I got for Christmas (plus the socks I knit from them) are only whetting my appetite for More Sock Books Now.

Oh, and check out the latest entry on [url=http://www.licketyknits.com] Rachel’s blog[/url] to see a yummy pair of Cabled Rib socks from the book.

Thank you for this post–last night I ordered this book while ordering a novel I need for my Book Group. Then I felt guilty; I have so many knitting books, I have so many sock patterns already, yada yada…

You made me feel so much better, and now I can’t wait for my book to arrive!!! (I ordered from Barnes&Noble.com and it should come next week).

Thank you – I’ve been fighting with Amazon for weeks over this book! They now insist it hasn’t been released yet, so they went from saying I’d have it at the end of February to saying it would be LATE APRIL before it would ship. I cancelled my order with them and went to Overstock…I didn’t even think to check there!!! Hurray!

(And sure, I could have ordered it from Knitpicks…but it might have arrived in late April anyway.)

I LOVE when you post pictures from books! Thanks so much; I really hate that the only thing in book previews on Amazon are useless index pages, etc. I need to SEE the projects before I’m going to order them… and I’m thinkin’ I’m going to order this one pretty soon. I do so love socks!

Isn’t the book awesome? I was fortunate enough to be skiing in the Salt Lake area the last week of January, so I dropped by Nancy Bush’s shop, Wooly West, and they had a copy. I immediately bought it. Ha, I felt like the luckiest person in the world to have a copy so soon. My husband in the other hand, thought I was nuts.

Thanks so much for posting photos! I’ve had this book on my wish list forever. And how funny – I have that skirt in the first picture and wear it all the time. Now I’d better knit the gorgeous anklets to go with it.

I just got my copy in the mail today. I saw the preview photos on Knit Picks and thought it looked like a good one. Good is an understatement! First of all, I don’t have any old copies of Interweave Knits and second of all I LOVE the patterns. Two of them might be ‘maybe’s, but the rest – I can hardly wait to get knitting!

I received mine a couple weeks ago, too, and quickly perused it but stashed it for a time when I could *really* look through it and no other knitting projects were calling my name. It definately is a keeper, though!

I picked up my copy last week and I’m already half done with half of my first Cascade Fixation sock. I was a bit dubious about the elastic in the fixation but all my fears have been allayed and I want to make many many pairs for warmer weather.

My copy arrived on Tuesday. You are so right. It is a lovely book. I have already started on the Waving Lace Socks for Auntie’s birthday. Like it says on the tin ‘A soothing sock to knit’. This is a good thing as there is a time factor built into this project as her birthday is on the 15th & they will have to be posted. The yarn is a 100% merino from ‘The Natural Dye Company’ in the UK.

Great review. I love that you post photos, as it really helps me to decide if I want a book. I was ready to take a pass on this, as I have IK’s dating back to the ’90s, but there are socks I haven’t seen and the articles alone are worth having collected in one place.

one of my fave is the green one (the knee length) with ribbon.. but I just wonder if, let say you knit that and attach the ribbon, with what kind of shoes you will wearing it? I cant find any shoes model that could match with the socks, that’s too lovely to wear it with shoes…;)

Like you, I have only been looking at knitting magazines in the past couple of years, so it is great to see that this book actually has some “new” patterns in it. This books looks like it would help me learn a lot of new sock methods. Thanks!

I did not know that Overstock.com had knitting books either! Wow — I had to look through all of them just now. I already pre-ordered my copy of Favorite Socks from Amazon, along with Yarn Harlot’s next book, plus 1 other. (It’s all about getting the free shipping.) I knew I’d be waiting because Harlot’s book hasn’t been released yet. I bought enough stuff at Stitches West to keep me busy well past April (ahem), so I’m actually not complaining about the wait. Thanks for posting the pictures. I am looking forward to receiving my copy more than ever now. So many socks, so little time!

Thank you for showing us some of the socks included in the book. Now, I just have to convince to my husband that one more knitting book is worth the ever-vanishing shelf space in our house. I feel my fingers just itching to get my hands on it.

Evelyn Clark’s Waving Lace socks are a delightful knit: not too complicated, and still relatively mindless, especially on five dpns (because there are exactly two pattern repeats per needle and you *always* can see straightaway where you’ve made any mistake ). I’m still on the fence, as I have the IK issues with (I think) all of these patterns–not as urgent as the STR package that I’m merrily playing with, at any rate. Cheerio!